TNA Wrestling fired Bubba the Love Sponge on Friday after a verbal confrontation between BTLS and Awesome Kong on the radio. After reading for three days about the compassionate side of Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling I think I am about ready to vomit.
The firing of Bubba the Love Sponge is the end of a story that started a couple of months ago. I have written numerous blogs on the Awesome Kong vs. BTLS feud so I won’t get into the past too much. Nevertheless, the end came last week when BTLS ambushed former TNA wrestler Awesome Kong on a radio show. BTLS went nuts and did everything from threaten to beat up Kong, challenged her to a fight, and what may was likely his downfall, called her a “black b*tch”. A day after the audio of the incident hit the Internet and You Tube, TNA Wrestling officially parted ways via the TNA Wrestling Facebook page.
Keep in mind that BTLS is probably more hated by pro wrestling fans right now than just about anyone in the business, so he wasn’t going to get much support from wrestling fans. On the one hand, it is a free country and TNA Wrestling can hire or fire anyone they want. As soon as I heard BTLS refer to Kong as a “black b*tch,” my eyes raised and I knew that he just dug his grave. Not that I agree he should be fired for it, but I knew that the comment would give his haters the ammo they needed to put the nail in the coffin. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t know how bad that is since plenty of women of color in rap refer to themselves the same way and wear that badge with honor. Not too mention, TNA Wrestling has a wrestler they call “Black Machismo”, so I really don’t get it why this is such a racist remark to a woman that calls herself, “Awesome Kong.”
[adinserter block=”1″]Immediately upon his dismissal, I read pro wrestling fans and bloggers praise TNA and Dixie Carter for doing the honorable thing here and showing compassion. Excuse me if I decide not to jump on that bandwagon. How compassionate is Dixie Carter for standing by idly and allowing her wrestlers to take unprotected chair shots to their skulls? How compassionate is Dixie Carter for not allowing wrestlers out of their contracts who ask to leave TNA Wrestling? How compassionate is Dixie Carter for not firing a wrestler who sucker punches a non-wrestler in her locker room? How compassionate is Dixie Carter for being worked like a moron by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff and fired a writing team that worked their tails off for the last few years? How compassionate is Dixie Carter for allowing TNA Wrestling to leak negative details about fired employees, thus possibly costing them future job opportunities? How compassionate is Dixie Carter to the gay community for putting a gay character on television with milk running down his chest? How compassionate are TNA Wrestling and Dixie Carter to the catholic community for naming a wrestler “the Black Pope?” How freaking compassionate is Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling for allowing a 41-year old man with multiple broken necks to flip off of a steel cage? How compassionate is Dixie Carter for hiring ex-WWE talents immediately after they left the WWE due to Wellness Policy issues? In the words of the late Gorilla Monsoon, “give me a break!”
Excuse me for also not shedding many tears for Awesome Kong. Here is a woman that has bullied other TNA Knockouts while in TNA Wrestling. Here is a woman that walked up to a non-wrestler and sucker punched him in the TNA Wrestling locker room. I never understood people who get that fired up over someone’s opinion when they disagree with it. Whether you agree with what Bubba the Love Sponge said about Haiti or not, it does not give anyone the right to walk up and punch him in the mouth! BTLS could have easily filed a lawsuit against TNA Wrestling, Dixie Carter, and Awesome Kong and didn’t. Instead, Kong filed a lawsuit and made some very strong accusations towards BTLS which she probably hoped would cost him his job. From everything that I have read about Awesome Kong, she tends to get verbal or physical with the weak and in my world, that makes her a bit of a bully. In pro wrestling, it makes her a hero for attacking public enemy #1. I apologize for not feeling too much sympathy for bullies.
[adinserter block=”2″]And before we give Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling a parade, how compassionate were they for hiring BTLS in the first place? I listen to BTLS from time to time but I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I do know a little something about him and his show. For those who don’t some memorable moments from the BTLS show (from my memory and his wiki page) include; a bit where a listener has excrement sprayed on them with a fan, accused a competitor of being gay with AIDS, reportedly made sexual comments about a 13-year old girl, slaughtered an animal on the air, etc, etc. I say this not as a BTLS hater, but to point out that Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling knew exactly who they were getting when they hired BTLS. You don’t hire a controversial radio shock jock and then expect to get sympathy out of me when you fire him for saying something controversial! Hulk Hogan’s friend or not, Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling had no problem with any of this but now all of the sudden draws the line at “black b*tch?”
So before we aware Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling the Lady Bing trophy of wrestling, let’s take a look at the whole picture here. Did Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling do the right thing? Well, the right thing would be bringing back her old creative team, exiling Hulk Hogan and crew, and moving TNA Impact back to Thursday nights. Firing a controversial radio shock jock for saying something shocking isn’t all that impressive to me.
Update – Listen to the unedited audio of the Bubba-Awesome Kong confrontation online at http://www.btls.com/news/bubba-confronts-awesome-kong.html.
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GROUP HUG!!!!!
i also agree Dixie Carter has done some highly questionable things in her time as TNA president (many of which you stating in your article)
but amongst wrestling fans, she that gets respect for allowing TNA to survive financially when time were tough, and providing an alternative to WWE (yeah maybe some other company would've rescued TNA in 2002 but who knows)
Anyway, enough of our mini feud !
I'm just glad my 5 month exposure to BTLS is over
and i would like to commend you on the 99% of the articles written by you on this site before.
I will accept 99% of that compliment! Thanks man.
Well first of all i'd like to thank Eric Gagiulo to responding to my above comment,
I simply cannot imagine Dixie Carter sitting down and listening to a 'bubba the love sponge' radio show before hiring him, even though she has allowed TNA talents on broadcasts in the past.
Clearly there is right and wrong on both sides of this Awesome Kong vs. BTLS feud
(she never should have laid her hands on bubba regardless on his opinions on the crisis in haiti. He shouldn't have behaved the way he did on the cowhead radio show) but the simple fact is BTLS is not a good fit for the TNA product, so no wrestling fan is gonna be shedding tears over his firing.
I have no interest in defending Ms. Carter (i think she's made many bad calls over guys she's hired and fired in the past eg. Adam 'Pacman' Jones) but when she does make a correct decision, I think she should be commended not criticized.
I would like to thank you for coming back to the site. Things got a bit heated earlier and I would much rather agree to disagree without calling each other names than sit here and call each other morons. I am glad you see both sides and believe me I do too but I just don't know if this was a reason to fire him. Yet I do know it is a free country and TNA can hire or fire anyone they want. I just have a lot more issues with Dixie Carter than Bubba as stated above and don't feel she is the compassionate individual that some are making her out to be.
This is easily the most moronic article I've ever read on this website.
I'm sure Dixie Carter knew nothing about Todd Clem and his work (apart from the fact it he was Hogans buddy) before he joined the company.
no-one cared about "Dixie Carter doing the honorable thing and showing compassion"
Everyone is just congratulating her for this 1 occasion, making a common sense decision for her company.
This is easily the most moronic comment that has ever been posted here and that says a lot. I dont even know where to begin. How do you know that Dixie didn't know about Bubba's background? Have you asked her? Just so you know, TNA talent including Dixie have been doing Bubba's radio show for years and participating in crazy bits (ask Kurt and Karen ex-Angle). Believe me, everyone in TNA is well aware of what Bubba does. And, if she didnt she has to be the biggest idiot in the world and I don't believe that to be the case. You are also wrong, as I have read numerous tweets, blogs, and comments from fans praising Dixie.
I don't mind that you disagree, but when you open up the comment calling me a moron and then post one of the dumbest defenses I have yet to read, well I'm going to call you out on it.
Yeah no one in that situation comes out looking like the good guy. This business is gonna start sucking more and more if this kinda stuff is just taken as day-to-day business.